Enterprise Web leader Plumtree Software today released new software to support Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP) from OASIS and the proposed final draft of the Java Specification Request 168 (JSR 168) portlet standard. Plumtree is one of the first software vendors to release products for supporting the new WSRP and the proposed JSR 168 portlet standards, and one of the only vendors to build and test those products for use on application servers from several different vendors. For both standards implementations, Plumtree's support extends to versions 4.5, 4.5WS and 5.0 of the Plumtree Corporate Portal. The standards are important to Plumtree because they free customers from basing technology decisions on whether a vendor's proprietary conventions will prevail in the market: a customer investing in Plumtree's industry-leading Enterprise Web software can now develop industry-standard portlets, and ensure that the investment can be put to work within virtually any portal. Plumtree customers can contact support@plumtree.com for a free copy of the new products.

Gartner analyst Ray Valdes will join Plumtree as a featured speaker for a Web seminar September 10th to discuss JSR 168 and WSRP and to explain how companies can use Web services to build applications within portals. The public can register for the event and download a new paper on Plumtree and the portlet standards at www.plumtree.com/webservices.

Plumtree's implementations of WSRP and of the proposed JSR 168 standard are based on its Web Services Architecture, which allows portlets to run remotely from the application server hosting the portal. This architecture helps ensure that the portal remains open to resources hosted on a wide range of application servers, and unaffected by faults in any one portlet. This architecture also supports a wide range of other integration components that run as Web services, for indexing content, importing security information, federating searches and profiling users. Plumtree is one of the only vendors that has published performance and scale-test data for a Web services-oriented architecture, and has successfully deployed hundreds of portals based on that architecture.

"The completion of portlet standards for building Enterprise Web applications is an important milestone in the portal market," said Plumtree CEO John Kunze. "As one of the industry's openness leaders, Plumtree is already releasing portlet containers and consumers to support WSRP and the proposed JSR 168 standards. To build Web applications, Plumtree relies on a range of Web services far broader than simple portlets. We thus expect that portlet standards are the first, important step in a longer journey toward standardizing all Web application components, a journey that we hope to continue to lead. Our long-term vision is to create a set of standards for application-building Web services as coherent as the J2EE standard has been for Java components, to support a new layer of infrastructure for assembling applications from Web services hosted on a wide range of application servers."

Currently in proposed final draft, JSR 168 is developed though the Java Community Process with contributions and support from an 18-member Expert Group (EG). It is a key portlet standard for portal computing designed to establish a common interface for portlets to enhance efficiency of application delivery through portals. Final release of the standard is expected later this month.

To support JSR 168, Plumtree participated in the Java Community Process review of the draft standard, developed the Plumtree JSR 168 Portlet Container based on the proposed final draft, and pre-tested the Plumtree Container against the current version of the JSR 168 Technology Compatibility Kit to prepare for full compatibility. Plumtree plans to update its container with any changes made in the final release of the JSR 168 standard. In any implementation of JSR 168, the portal communicates with a container, which contains the actual JSR 168 portlet. Unlike implementations planned by some other vendors for JSR 168, the Plumtree Container was designed to run on many application servers and Web servers including Apache Tomcat, BEA WebLogic and IBM WebSphere.

The Plumtree Corporate Portal communicates with the Plumtree Container via Internet protocols, so JSR 168 portlets can also run on a platform separate from the portal. The portal consuming the JSR 168 portlets is likewise free to run on any J2EE-compatible or Windows application server and is able to integrate a higher volume of portlets than it would if all the portlets ran natively with the portal. This use of Internet protocols, while consistent with the current version of the JSR 168 standard, also seeks to anticipate improvements coming with the next version of the standard to support remote portlets.

As a major participant in the OASIS WSRP Technical Committee, Plumtree is now releasing its WSRP Portlet Consumer to allow customers to embed WSRP-portlets in Plumtree-powered Web applications. Plumtree's WSRP Portlet Consumer is a software component that acts as the intermediary between the portal and the raw WSRP portlet, which is known as the WSRP producer. The Plumtree WSRP Portlet Consumer can run on the same platform as the producer, on the portal, or on a middle tier between the portal and the WSRP producer, offering customers flexibility in scaling the portal deployment to many business units, each with their own portlets.

The portal, the WSRP Portlet Consumer and the producer communicate via Internet protocols in conformance with the overall design of Plumtree's Web Services Architecture, allowing both the portal and WSRP producer to run on almost any application server. Plumtree has validated that the WSRP Portlet Consumer is interoperable with all the test implementations of a WSRP producer, including those offered by BEA, IBM, Oracle and Citrix.

"Plumtree continues its role as an active participant in the OASIS WSRP Technical Committee and has built its WSRP implementation according to the current guidelines. Its contributions to our shared vision -- standards-based portlets developed by any party, in any environment, on any platform, consumed by any standards-based portal -- has been extremely helpful," said Rich Thompson, chair of the OASIS WSRP Technical Committee. "Implementation of the WSRP consumer by Plumtree, as well as other major vendors, clearly demonstrates that WSRP is an interoperable, viable solution for today."

For more information about Plumtree Software's standards compliance see:

Plumtree Software is the Enterprise Web leader. Plumtree's mission is to create a comprehensive Web environment for employees, customers and partners across the enterprise to interact with different systems and work together. Plumtree's Enterprise Web solution consists of integration products for bringing resources from traditional systems together on the Web, foundation services such as collaboration, content management and search for building new Web applications, and a portal platform for delivering these Web applications to broad audiences. Plumtree's independence and its Web Services Architecture allow this solution to span rival platforms and systems, maximizing customers' return on their existing investments. With offices in more than a dozen countries, Plumtree has over 520 customers, including Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Procter & Gamble and the U.S. Navy.

About the Java Community Process

Since its introduction in 1998 as the open, inclusive process to develop and revise Java technology specifications, reference implementations, and technology compatibility kits, the Java Community Process program has fostered the evolution of the Java platform in cooperation with the international Java developer community. The JCP has over 650 company and individual participants; more than 200 Java technology specifications are in development in the JCP program, out of which 46 percent are in final stages. For more information on the JCP program, please visit http://jcp.org.